Diesel car ban may not happen. Centre yet to accept panel's recommendation

In a relief to all diesel vehicle owners in India, the Petroleum Ministry has said that it will not implement the recommendations of its panel received earlier. The ministry took to Twitter to say that the Centre is yet to accept the report from its energy transition panel. The report suggested that use of all diesel-powered four-wheelers in all major cities across India should be banned by 2027 to promote cleaner mobility. The recommendation is to ban diesel cars in cities with more than one million population.

On Tuesday, the ministry said that the recommendations of the panel are futuristic. It wrote, “India is committed to NetZero by 2070. ETAC has made wide ranging and forward looking recommendations for shift to low carbon energy. ETAC has a futuristic outlook." However, the ministry said, it requires a lot of deliberation with all the stakeholders, including states, to take a final call on whether to implement such bans.

The sale of diesel is about 40 per cent of all fossil fuel used in India. The transport sector depends almost 80 per cent on diesel to operate. Besides commercial vehicles, diesel is also used by several private vehicle owners, especially large SUVs. A ban would require proper planning to offer alternatives. Hence, the ministry said, “No decision has yet been taken on ETAC recommendations."

Earlier, the panel submitted a report in which it advised in favour of switching to pure electric and gas-fuelled vehicles in those cities where more than a million people live. The panel has also reportedly proposed the ban on diesel four-wheelers in polluted towns nationwide to reduce vehicular emissions.

The panel also said that by the end of this decade, no fossil-fuel-powered city buses should be added to the fleet. The panel has advocated in favour of adding only electric buses. "By 2030, no city buses should be added which are not electric...diesel buses for city transport should not be added from 2024 onwards," the panel reportedly said in the report.

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